Rohani Offers Milder Rhetoric Though No Concessions at UN

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- New Iranian President Hassan Rohani
took his bid to improve Iran’s image onto the world stage with a
speech yesterday at the United Nations that offered softer
rhetoric without conceding his country’s right to nuclear power.

Rohani, 64, said Iran isn’t interested in escalating
tensions with the U.S. and is ready to enter talks “without
delay” to resolve questions about whether his country’s nuclear
program is solely for peaceful purposes, as he said, or a secret
attempt to develop the capability to make weapons, as the U.S.,
Israel and the European Union suspect.

“Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction
have no place in Iran’s security and defense doctrine, and
contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions,”
Rohani told the UN General Assembly, according to an English
language translation of his remarks. “Our national interests
make it imperative that we remove any and all reasonable
concerns about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.”

Unlike his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rohani didn’t
denounce Israel by name and referred to the Torah, a core of the
Jewish faith. At the same time, he criticized the U.S. use of
drone strikes against suspected terrorists, as well as Western
economic sanctions against Iran.

Michael Singh, a former director for Iran policy on the
National Security Council under President George W. Bush, called
the speech “more constructive and far less bellicose than the
UN speeches by Rohani’s predecessor Ahmadinejad, but that is a
very low bar.”

Same Fundamentals

“The style has definitely changed, but the fundamentals
haven’t changed at all,” said Majid Rafizadeh, president of the
Washington-based International American Council on Middle East
and North Africa.

“Rohani needed to deliver some satisfaction to the Iranian
public, who are worried about the damaging impact of sanctions
on the economy,” said Rafizadeh. He also said that a “charm
offensive this week at the UN” by the Iranian president and
Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif “was not for the West, but for
the voters that put them in office.”

Kenneth Pollack, a senior fellow at the Saban Center for
Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, a Washington
policy research organization, called the speech “a bit
disappointing,” saying he’d hoped Rohani would say more.

Rohani spoke after rejecting a possible informal encounter
with U.S. President Barack Obama while both leaders were at the
UN. Iranian officials cited domestic political considerations, a
U.S. official told reporters.

‘Timid Remarks’

Rohani later told CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour
that he didn’t meet Obama because “we didn’t have sufficient
time to really coordinate the meeting,” according to excerpts
provided by the network.

“I think it reflects the realities of his situation, just
as Obama’s timid remarks reflect his,” said Pollack, a former
analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency. “They both have
domestic skeptics and will have to have the courage to get past
them if this is going to work.”

It remains an open question whether Rohani can convince
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to do a “cost-benefit
analysis” of the country’s nuclear program and make way for
some sanctions to be eased or lifted, said Rafizadeh.

In his interview with Amanpour, Rohani abandoned
Ahmadinejad’s denial of the Holocaust and said “the crime the
Nazis created towards the Jews is reprehensible and
condemnable.”

“Whatever criminality they committed against the Jews, we
condemn,” Rohani continued. “The taking of human life is
contemptible. It makes no difference whether that life is Jewish
life, Christian, or Muslim. For us it is the same.”

Palestinian Issue

Without mentioning any nation or group by name, he then
said the crime committed against the Jewish people doesn’t
justify occupation of Palestinian land.

In the interview, he made a point of extending “my
greetings to the people of America who are very dear and near to
the hearts of the Iranian people and to wish them a good time
and good times ahead.”

Rohani missed his chance to impress the world with his UN
speech, said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the
Washington-based Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
“Rohani’s speech was targeted not at winning over Americans,
but pleasing Khamenei and other hardliners at home in Tehran,”
Dubowitz said.

Iranian Reaction

In Tehran, some Iranians said they were happy about the
promise of further dialogue between their leader and the U.S.
president.

“Finally, Obama didn’t threaten us,” said Reza, 65, who
lives in Karaj, outside Tehran and declined to give his last
name. “Rohani has a strong personality; I think he can leave a
positive impression.”

Speaking earlier yesterday to the UN, Obama said the U.S.
is “encouraged” that Rohani’s election in June gave the
Iranian leader a mandate to pursue a moderate course that may
provide a basis for a “meaningful agreement” on the nuclear
issue.

To that end, Obama said he instructed Secretary of State
John Kerry to begin high-level negotiations on its nuclear
program.

Concern that the U.S. and its allies might be tempted to
ease the sanctions on Iran ahead of any agreement have prompted
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials to
issue warnings over Rohani’s more conciliatory tone toward the
West.

Netanyahu instructed the Israeli delegation to the General
Assembly to leave the hall during Rohani’s speech, as it did
last year during Ahmadinejad’s address.

“Iran thinks that soothing words and token actions will
enable it to continue on its path to the bomb,” Netanyahu said
in an e-mailed statement. “Israel would welcome a genuine
diplomatic solution that truly dismantles Iran’s capacity to
develop nuclear weapons. But we will not be fooled by half-measures.”